News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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Bright lights, big city: LED billboards lucky for Phuket
PHUKET: Lucky Media is one of those companies that from humble beginnings has evolved into a player with serious impact and an annual income of 150 million to 200mn baht. The publicly listed company was born in Bangkok out of the Assawarungruang family business, Lucky Music – which started and continues to be a music store importing PRS amplifiers, Gibson…
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Phuket Gazette re-designs to go national
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette hard-copy newspaper that hits the streets today is truly national in circulation and boasts a re-design to the ‘compact’ format that’s set to be the wave of the future. By joining the compacts of such esteemed publications as the The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, the Times of London, the Daily Mail, Bild and scores of…
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Superyacht crew visas slated for November
PHUKET: Special visas for foreign-flagged superyacht crew is expected to be rolled out by November, confirmed the Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul. The ‘new package’ for superyachts will include changes in law for visas, as well as tax exemptions, all timed to line up with an international superyacht show organized by the Ministry of Transport, explained Ms Kobkarn. “The…
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Business Buzz: Creating sales funnels with social media
PHUKET: Following up on last week, now that you have a plan, know your target market and understand the importance of your biggest asset – your database, we are going to look at how the customer experience is created through your sales funnel. Many people do not fully understand the role and importance of a sales funnel as a whole…
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GM takes wheel at Cassia Phuket
PHUKET: Banyan Tree has appointed a new General Manager for the company’s most recent hotel residences, Cassia Phuket. Ilias Vamvakas will be taking the reins at this the third property in the company’s portfolio after having worked and led teams in various hotels around the world, including: Sandals Grande St Lucia Spa & Beach Resort and The Sealine Beach Resort…
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Opinion: Human rights
PHUKET: The plan by Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos to ban migrant workers from keeping dogs is unlikely to have much of an effect on dog populations in the area; the scheme not only fails to address the main cause of the problem, but also shifts the blame to the most convenient scapegoat. Predictably, news of the proposed ban has set…
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PM Prayut invokes Article 44 to sack PPAO President
PHUKET: Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha wielded Article 44 of the interim charter to temporarily suspend Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) President Paiboon Upatising from his post without pay. The order signed today names a number of government officials throughout Thailand. Mr Paiboon was the only Phuket official on the list. “The reason the government has temporarily removed me from…
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Opinion: Accessing a world of change
Todd Lemons is the founder of InfiniteEARTH (infinite-earth.com), a Hong Kong-based project development company whose mission is “to move the world from an unsustainable extractive economy to a sustainable replacement economy by changing the way [we] view the consumption and pricing of goods…” Here is his commencement address to the Class of 2015 at the British International School Phuket last…
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Phuket Tourist Police expect new facility to boost performance
PHUKET: The Phuket Tourist Police have opened up three new facilities for officers in hopes of boosting their performance. “We have a new meeting room for training officers, a Command and Control Operations Center [CCOC] for information gathering and a new gym to keep the officers healthy,” said Tourist Police Commander Apichai Ti-amataya. “Our policy is to create a professional…
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Injured turtle found tangled in fishing net at Phuket beach
PHUKET: An injured sea turtle found trapped in a fishing net in front of JW Marriott Phuket Resort and Spa in Mai Khao was rescued Tuesday morning. Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers were called to the scene by hotel security at about 7:30am. Hotel employees had already helped free the turtle from the net by the time rescue workers arrived. “The…
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Police launch murder investigation at Phuket pier
PHUKET: Police have launched a murder investigation after an unidentified man was found dead with a deep cut on his neck near Rassada Pier on Tuesday morning. Police and rescue workers went to the scene, on the road behind the office of the Phuket Fishing Market Organization, and found the shirtless body covered in a blanket and a towel. “The…
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Police crack drug-dealing network, seize war weapon
PHUKET: Police have cracked open a drug and weapons network after arresting two methamphetamine dealers in possession of a weapon of war and other guns in Phuket on Monday. Thammanoon Kaewsirnuon, 31, and Khlongsiri Rorngsakul, 24, were caught at their rental house in Thalang on Monday, after police were tipped off by a man named by officers only as ‘Pop’,…
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Colombians arrested for Phuket car robbery
PHUKET: Police have arrested two Colombian suspects for the professional-style robbery of a car in the parking lot of Tesco Lotus Thalang on Sunday (story here). Daniel Guerrero Ariza, 28, and Jean Ortega Duarte, 21, were arrested on Monday when they went to return a car they had rented from a shop in Ao Nang, Krabi. Both men have denied…
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Eviction notice posted at Nui Beach establishments
PHUKET: Karon Municipality and Naval officers have issued a 30-day eviction notice for several establishments on Nui Beach after the court confirmed that the owner unlawfully possesses the land. The news follows a raid of the beach in February that investigated complaints by locals that mafia thugs were charging people a fee to use the public beach (story here). Last…
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Recreational fisherman found dead off Koh Yao Noi
PHUKET: The remains of a recreational fisherman who went missing on Saturday were found in the waters near Koh Yao Noi early this morning. The wife of Manop Poolpirom, 37, was able to identify her husband’s remains despite their condition after having been exposed to the open ocean and tropical sun. “Mrs Pim told us that her husband often went…
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Hong Kong tourist caught reporting false robbery in Chalong
PHUKET: A Hong Kong tourist has been arrested in Chalong for making a false police report on Sunday morning. At about 1:30am Chalong Police called the Tourist Police hotline to assist them with a robbery complaint. When Phuket Tourist Police arrived they found 22-year-old Wong Wai Ki Warwick Taboctabo – who told police he is from Hong Kong, but holds…
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Phuket officials netted in gambling raid
PHUKET: A couple of local officials were among those arrested during the raid of an illegal gambling den near Khao Naka in Phuket on Sunday night. Kamala Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) council member Sommai Kritsan and the village headman for Chalong Moo 1, Pradit Ongsantipap, were among the 26 arrested during the joint-police operation. “We received a tip-off that there…
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Sea gypsies beg for protection after “gun threats’
PHUKET: About 200 Rawai sea gypsies yesterday begged Phuket authorities for protection after a group of men allegedly threatened to shoot them if they moved concrete blocks that had been placed on the public access road to their village. “Last month, a group of men put concrete barriers on the path between the beach and our village, which we have…
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Research team to reveal beach-management solution next month
PHUKET: The beach-management research team at Prince of Songkhla University (PSU) Phuket campus will present its findings about current beach rules and ideas for the future to Governor Nisit Jansomwong next month. Governor Nisit told the Phuket Gazette last week (story here) that he had designated the research team to evaluate the results of the three-month trial period for the…
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Myanmar national found dead in workers’ camp
PHUKET: A Myanmar national found dead in a workers’ camp is thought to have died by electrocution, reported Chalong Police. Police and Ruamjai Foundation rescue workers were called to the scene in Soi Luang Phu Supha off Chao Fa West Road at about 5:30pm, where they found the body of Myint Myint Win, 31, lying on a wet floor near…
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Business: East coast shopping
PHUKET: Choice, and lots of it, is what Phuket’s cosmopolitan consumers are demanding, and as the shopping scene transforms to adapt to more local-centric lifestyles among the island’s international community, smaller family-oriented malls are taking shape across the island. Leading the way in bringing a more upmarket shopping experience is shopping and lifestyle guru Kanittha Prasopsirikul, managing director of ‘By…
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Motorists escape serious injury in chain-reaction crash
PHUKET: Three motorists narrowly escaped serious injury in Phuket when a motorbike driver fell off her bike and caused a chain-reaction accident on Thepkrasattri Road yesterday. Thalang Police arrived at the scene to find major traffic tailbacks in the southbound lane, a totalled Toyota sedan wrapped around a utility pole, a badly damaged pick-up truck and motorbike in the middle…
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Owners deny sending ‘muscle’ to threaten Phuket squatters
PHUKET: Chalong landowners have asked island officials for justice and transparency in an investigation into a complaint filed by locals earlier this month claiming that the landowners had sent ‘men in black’ to threaten them for encroaching on the land. Samran Sanyanuphap and Sulak Kunarak, two of the landowners listed on the Chanote for the disputed 70 rai of land…
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Snake head stuck in Phuket hole
PHUKET: It took Phuket rescue workers about 15 minutes to remove a three-meter python from a drain cover hole near Khao Khad View Point this weekend. “When we arrived it was clear that the snake had gotten its head stuck in the hole,” said Kusoldharm Rescue Foundation worker Silaluck Na Thalang. “I’m glad we got a call from passing motorists,…
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Property: Building a better market
PHUKET: Although not visible across the island’s multi-fold property market, the dominance of re-sales over new developments is obvious in the luxurious, but not lavish segment, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Thailand David Simister said. Sitting just below the multi-million-dollar villa tier is this interesting segment, which has a number of quality properties in the range of 12 to 30…
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Governor checks Phuket Airport’s MERS control efforts
PHUKET: Island officials gave Phuket International Airport’s MERS prevention efforts a check-up on Friday to ensure the airport was able to identify passengers from South Korea and the Middle East who may be carrying the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (Mers-CoV). No passengers from these risk countries have been suspected of carrying MERS, said Phuket Provincial Health Organization (PPHO) Chief Kajohnsak…
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One killed, two seriously injured in Phuket motorcycle crash
PHUKET: One Phuket resident was killed and three others injured early this morning, when three men on a motorbike ran a red light in Thalang and collided with another man on a motorcycle. Police arrived at the Khao Lan junction on Thepkrasattri Road, just south of Tesco Thalang, at about 1:30am and found the body of Suriya Chaikul, 34. “On…
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Phuket villagers switch off EGAT’s power-line plan
PHUKET: The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has changed its plan to run a 500-kilovolt power-line through Thalang after local villagers filed a complaint about the project last month. EGAT decided to use one of the suggestions put forth by the protestors in their first complaint (story here) and install the new 500KV line along the same path as…
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Business Buzz: Building your database
PHUKET: This week, let me explain the biggest asset your social media marketing efforts will build for you: your database. A marketing database is an electronic list of all of your potential customers, with as much relevant information as you can gather about them. Normally, this is combined with a platform that can be used to communicate automatically on a…
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Phuket gets B29mn for CCTV
PHUKET: A budget of 29 million baht has been allocated for Phuket to boost the number of government-run CCTV on the island by 202 cameras, it was announced last weekend. The cameras are in addition to the 307 recently installed Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) CCTV cameras, but not part of the 238mn-baht upgrade of cameras on the island that is…
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